Sunday, August 5, 2012, 4 pm at Woodstock’s Maverick Concerts:

Lauded for their “intelligence” and “immensely satisfying” playing by the New York Times, the Amernet String Quartet has garnered worldwide praise and recognition as one of today’s exceptional string quartets. Ensemble-​​in-​​Residence at Florida International University since 2004, the group was formed in 1991, while its founding members were students at the Juilliard School. Amernet rose to international attention after their first season, winning the Gold Medal at the Tokyo International Music Competition in 1992. In 1995, the group was the First Prize winner of the prestigious Banff International String Quartet Competition.

Nancy Allen Lundy has earned critical acclaim for her unique vocal beauty, skillful musicianship and theatrical prowess in a wide variety of classical and contemporary styles throughout the world. Opera companies with whom she has appeared include the New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, The Washington National Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Cincinnati Opera, Hawaii Opera Theater, Minnesota Opera, Opera Pacific, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Portland Opera, Spoleto, U.S.A, Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile, the Bregenzer Festspeile in Austria, Festival Euro Mediterraneo in Rome, The Netherlands Opera, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan.

Nancy Allen Lundy

Her operatic repertoire encompasses more than thirty roles, of which she has earned particular acclaim for her portrayals of Poppea in Handel’s Agrippina, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Curley’s Wife in Of Mice and Men, Gilda in Rigoletto, Musetta in La Boheme, Ann Trulove in The Rake’s Progress, and Cunegonde in Candide, to name a few.

Robert deMaine

Praised by The New York Times as “an artist who makes one hang on every note,” Robert deMaine has distinguished himself as one of the finest and most versatile cellists of his generation, having performed to critical acclaim as soloist, recitalist, orchestral principal, recording artist, and chamber musician throughout the world, from the stages of Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., to the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, and Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall. A first-​​prize winner in many national and international competitions from the time he was 12 years old, deMaine became, in 1990, the first cellist ever to win San Francisco’s prestigious Irving M. Klein International Competition for Strings.

Israeli-​​born violist Yizhak Schotten was discovered and brought to the United States by the renowned violist William Primrose, with whom he studied at Indiana University and the University of Southern California. Other studies were with Lillian Fuchs at the Manhattan School of Music. A feature article about Yizhak Schotten in STRAD Magazine called him “one of America’s finest viola players… a leading light of the U.S. viola establishment.” His solo appearances with orchestras in this country and abroad have included performances with conductors Seiji Ozawa, Thomas Schippers, Sergiu Commissiona, Joseph Swensen, Arthur Fiedler and others.

Yizhak Schotten

In two decades of composing, Russell Platt has produced a distinctive body of chamber, vocal, and concerted works that are admired for their lyrical invention and exquisite craftsmanship. The twin brother of Maverick’s music director, Alexander Platt, Russell is an alumnus of Oberlin College, the Curtis Institute, the University of Minnesota, and St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge. He has won the Aaron Copland Award, the Charles Ives Scholarship and Fellowship, the McKnight Fellowship, fellowships at Aspen, Aldeburgh, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and six residencies at the Yaddo colony. Russell has been a music editor at The New Yorker since 2000, and is the curator of the Westport (Conn.) Arts Center’s chamber music series.